


Warmth in the coldest place of the Universe

by HeadFullOfAliens



Category: Adam (2009), Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Android Adam, Androids, Fantasy, Fluff, HannibalOdyssey, Kinda post-apocalypse? They're not even on Earth, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Rebel Nigel, Science Fiction, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Spacedogs, not an actual android, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-19 23:46:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9465938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeadFullOfAliens/pseuds/HeadFullOfAliens
Summary: Adam is an android who has been atSkaldi,an ice planetoid, for too long. He has seen an entire race arrive and die; he's left alone, wandering around snow-covered fields, stargazing.  One night, he sees a strange ship in the sky. The ship targets him, but a brave creature saves him. He wonders what that creature is; is it another android?Nigel introduces himself as a human, charmed by the naïve man, but he soon has to leave to fight a battle he has yet to win. Adam is left wondering where he comes from, and whether his memories are real or just a part of his code. The mark on his arm is suddenly foreign to him; what he thought was the signature of the race that created him, is instead what makes him the opposite of what he thought he was.But then, what happened to humans? And why does Adam know so little of them?Adam wished he hadn't met that human; he was so used to being alone, and now he couldn't stand it.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my contribution for #HannibalOdyssey ! I never thought the day would come when I would get to write about my favourite genres for this fandom, so this has been amazing.
> 
> Any mistakes are my own.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

Loneliness had never been a problem to Adam; he liked being alone.

The quiet sound of snowflakes falling and the soft sound of the wind was all noise around the place, with the occasional roar of an _Ice Wolf_. Adam liked it that way; he knew civilizations were noisy. 

Adam was a young man; or rather, a young _android._ He wasn’t so sure for how long had he been living; probably around less than an eighth of the planetoid’s orbital period. His skin was almost as white as the snow surrounding him, his eyes as blue as the flames of an Ice Wolf’s eyes. His hair had kept its curly nature, and Adam kept it short so it wouldn’t interfere with his stargazing. He didn’t really remember how his voice sounded; he’d had no need to use it in a long time. In his right arm, he had his making mark; the mark that proved he was an android, made by some other civilization. 

_Skaldi_ was such a nice place, despite its emptiness. A planetoid orbiting an O-type star, with vast fields covered in snow, frozen rivers and icy mountains. The only other inhabitants besides Adam were Ice Wolves; four-legged, enormous creatures, with white fur and blue flames that surrounded their eyes and mouth. Long ago, Ice Dragons had ruled the place, enslaving the Ice Wolves; Adam once thought he’d seen one flying over the horizon, its black wings surrounded by tiny blue diamonds. But maybe that had been just his imagination. Or did he have one? An icekin had told him once that his memories and thoughts were programmed so he’d be able to interact like a normal icekin, although his programmed memories were nothing like he knew life was in Skaldi. It was probably the only thing left of the lives the civilization that created him used to lead.

Ages ago, the Icekin had ruled along Dragons. They were tall; about twice as tall as Adam. Their skin was pale blue and their eyes were almost completely white, except for their pupils. Their hair was white, and they had long, black claws they used to hunt and threaten. They had been a smart civilization, but eventually, Dragons got greedy. A war started, and there were no winners. They had lived no longer than Adam himself, and in the blink of an eye, they were all gone.

After they all had died, Skaldi had become a peaceful place; a place where Adam could stargaze every night, a telescope the only thing left behind by the long-gone civilization. Adam sometimes wondered what other races were out there; there had to be more of them, more of the living creatures, somewhere, since he knew the Icekin had arrived to Skaldi from some other destroyed planet. Secretly, Adam thought they had been unable to survive the planetoid’s atmosphere.

One night, Adam was, as always, stargazing, when he spotted something unusual. Reflecting on that moment, he wished he would have decided to map other constellations in that exact moment.

A bright light blinded him for a second, before disappearing entirely. Adam looked away from the telescope, looking at the dark sky with his bare eyes. He spotted a particularly black spot in the sky, almost as though he were staring at a black hole. He stared at it, confused, for what must have been two minutes; then, suddenly, a red beam of light was pointed at him.

Adam shut his eyes tight, maintaining them that way even after the beam was gone. He only opened them at the strong sound of the beating of wings. What he saw in front of him left him mesmerized; someone was riding a Dragon, and it wasn’t an Ice Dragon. No, this dragon was _red_ , like the colour of Adam’s fuel. Its eyes were the colour of golden stars. And on top of it, there was what looked like another android, similar to Adam himself.

The strange android landed a few meters away from him, the dragon crying softly at the feeling of snow against its feet. Adam saw the stranger pull something from his waist that he didn’t recognize. He pointed its long and thin part at the black hole, and pressed his finger. The black hole look-alike disappeared, replaced instead by what looked like an orange and red mini-supernova.

“Fuckin’ morons,” the other android muttered, seemingly unaware of Adam’s presence. Adam instantly recognized the language he had been programmed with; the android was swearing.

“Welcome to Skaldi; the paradise made of ice,” he said, his voice sounding strange even to him. “The attractions here are – are…” he stuttered, not sure what to say. He knew what he was supposed to say, were someone new to come around, but he couldn’t; he would be giving false information. All attractions were gone. “You can hunt Ice Wolves, if you want to try,” he muttered, unsure.

The other android smiled, still looking away. “I’m not sure I wanna know what those fuckers are. They sound fucking annoying,” he finally turned to Adam, his maroon eyes bearing into Adam’s blue ones. “Didn’t think I’d find another human around.”

“Human?” Adam repeated, frowning. The word sounded familiar, but he couldn’t quite remember why, or what did it mean. “What’s that?”

“You,” the android chuckled. “You’re a human, just like me. Aren’t you?” he stepped closer, motioning with a hand to his Dragon so it would stay there. “My name is Nigel, gorgeous,” he extended a hand to Adam.

Adam blinked a couple of times, unsure. He extended his own hand, not so sure what to do with it. The android –Nigel– grabbed it with his own, shaking it for two seconds before releasing it. “I’m not gorgeous,” Adam said. “My name is Adam. And I’m not a human; I’m an android.”

“An android?” Nigel asked, his eyes widening. “Oh, come on; I’m no moron, gorgeous. I know we never developed androids. Well,” he snorted with laughter, “not human-looking ones, anyway.”

“We?”

“Humans,” Nigel replied. “You know, people who look like us? Soft skin, two eyes, almost no body hair, a conscience?” At Adam’s puzzled look, Nigel cackled. “Oh, you really don’t fucking know what humans are! Who gave you the idea of an android, anyway?”

“I was created by humans,” he remembered suddenly. “I was programmed to have the memories of a human, so I could interact with them normally. But I’m not a human; I’m an android; a machine with no life, built to please my civilization.”

Nigel hummed, nodding slowly. “Well, where’s your civilization?”

“They all died,” he said. “The Icekin died a long time ago. I believe they weren’t able to sustain life in this environment.”

“Oh,” Nigel nodded, pulling something from his waist again. Adam looked at the latter; he hadn’t seen anyone besides himself wearing… clothes. Is that what they were called? Adam wasn’t so sure he remembered. “Yeah, I know those fuckers,” he continued, unaware of Adam’s scrutiny, looking at a small silver rectangle. 

Adam looked, really _looked_ for the first time at the human. His hair was longer than Adam’s, dark gold, with some silver in it. His skin was darker than Adam’s, and it didn’t look as soft; in fact, it was full of scars. His eyes were narrower, his lips more defined, and his cheekbones were really prominent. When he smiled, Adam could get a glimpse of pointed teeth. He was slightly taller than Adam, and his shoulders were broader. He had a body similar to that of an icekin, quite muscular, except he was shorter.

Covering his lower body, he was wearing something dark that looked quite similar in texture to the skin of a dragon. Around his waist, he had several strips of the same material, in a lighter tone. He was wearing a shirt with long sleeves that looked quite heavy, with the chest ripped open so Adam could see the human had silver chest hair. Around his hands, he had thinner, darker strips of dragon skin, going around his fingers and wrists. Adam could see the strips probably circled his whole body; his shirt was ripped at the shoulder, and there Adam could see another strip. His feet were covered by something Adam didn’t recognize; the material mimicked the overall shape of a foot without the toes, but it was bigger and the bottom had an extra part that was darker and looked harder. The material of the upper thing was solid, too, the surface smooth. At the centre, it had even thinner strips of something that looked like braids, tying the material together.

Adam noticed, too, a strange shape at the top of the man’s shirt; it looked like an Ice Wolf, but… less mean. 

“This?” Nigel asked suddenly, extending his arm so the silver rectangle was facing Adam. In it, Adam saw a rough sketch of what looked slightly like an icekin. He nodded. “We knew those fuckers were somewhere around this star,” he chuckled. “And you’re right; these guys can’t really stand oxygen. It poisons them.”

“Oh,” Adam said. 

“Well, I don’t have much time left,” the human frowned. “I have about… ten minutes. Anyway, tell me,” he sat down in front of Adam, like the snow didn’t bother him. When he saw the android hesitate, he took his shirt with the nice wolf off. He placed it in front of him, and patted it. Adam frowned. “Sit down, come on. I have another jacket somewhere,” he shrugged. Adam noticed he had another shirt under the other one –under the _jacket_?–, with more of those nice wolves in it. It was blue, like Adam’s eyes.

“Okay,” he sat down in front of the human, the snow for once not hurting him. He looked down at what was left of his own clothes; an old white shirt with long sleeves, old and thin white pants, and socks made out of the same fabric as his shirt and pants. He thought he’d be unfazed by the snow, too, if he had clothes like Nigel’s.

“So, as I was saying, tell me about these memories you’ve been… programmed with.”

Adam nodded. “I wrote them down, but I don’t need my notes to remember,” he stated. At Nigel’s attentive look, he continued. “I remember being smaller. Two other androids took care of me. They fed me, and they carried me in their arms. Then I grew slightly bigger, almost the size I’m now, and I went to...” he paused, blinking. “I said I can remember it all, but I’ve forgotten some words.”

“That’s okay; I’ll try to help. Describe whatever the fuck you were talking about.”

“It was… A closed space,” he remembered. “With other tiny androids around. Or humans. They’re programmed memories; I don’t know if they’re supposed to be androids or humans.”

“Just call them humans.”

“Okay. There were tiny humans, around 32, I believe. A bigger human, much like myself, taught us things. She taught us about numbers and space, and countries and presidents.”

“That’s a school, darling”

“Yes!” he replied, excitedly. “Yes, that’s what it’s called!” he laughed. He caught himself in the middle of it, though; why was he laughing? He frowned, trying not to pay attention to it right now. “And I remember getting out of there, of school, and running back home, with my… parents. Parents,” he repeated. “I didn’t remember that word.”

“It’s good you’re remembering, then,” Nigel smiled to him, his pointed teeth showing. Adam liked them, so he smiled back. Or at least, he tried to.

“I would go back with my parents, and I…” he frowned, feeling something wet running down his cheeks. “I would do something like this,” he pointed at his face, “because I didn’t like school. No; I didn’t like being around other humans.”

Nigel raised a hand to Adam’s cheek. He tried to get away, but the human was faster; he placed a thumb over one of his cheeks, wiping away the wetness in it. He did the same with his other cheek. “Go on, gorgeous.”

“Then my parents got me out of school, and started teaching me at home instead. They used to say I was a genius, although I don’t really remember what that means.”

“It means you’re really fucking clever.”

“I’m not clever,” he frowned. “But by then I was this size already, and they sent me out. Something… I don’t… I… My code is corrupted,” he said, his voice trembling. “I can’t access those memories. Then I was here, and short after the Icekin arrived.”

Nigel nodded, a small smile on his face. His hand went to Adam’s cheek again, but this time he only held it. “Were they the ones who told you you were an android?”

Adam nodded. “They used another word, but it means almost the same.”

“What did it mean?”

“Lifeless machine.”

Nigel sighed, his thumb pressing lightly against Adam’s skin. It felt good, _warm._ “I have to go check just another moon, to make sure. Wish I could fucking stay, but,” he bit his lower lip, looking at Adam. Adam felt weird looking back at the human’s maroon eyes. Nigel sighed again, finally smiling once more, “I’ll come back,” he stood up. Adam mimicked him. “You know, those blue cunts lied to you. You’re a human. You probably have a soul mark, too.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“I might explain you next time I come,” he smiled. “I’ll show you mine, too, when I come back for you. I promise I will.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you want me to come back? Aren’t you alone?”

“I’ve always been alone,” he frowned. Nigel stepped closer to him, so close that their chests were almost touching. He leaned in.

“You won’t be anymore. I promise I’ll come back for you,” and his lips pressed against Adam’s forehead.

Adam saw him walk away, mount his dragon and go.

He returned to his telescope, but the sky suddenly looked quite lonely, even though the stars shone as bright as ever.

He stood there, stargazing, until light came back and he was unable to see anything. _The Sun rose,_ his brain told him, but he was unsure the star that warmed him was named like that. The Icekin called it Blue Star.

The Blue Star arose and set seven times, and Nigel still wasn’t back. Adam was trying to convince himself he wasn’t a human; he was a defective android, whose defective system had made that story up; a handsome man who tells him he’s a real man.

He wished he believed it. He wished he didn’t miss the human’s warm hands as much as he did. He wished he could stop feeling so lonely.

Sitting next to a frozen river, he wrote his name in the snow. His finger turned blue, and he looked at it, curious. The sound of the beating of wings stopped him. He closed his eyes shut as he sensed someone approaching; it hurt to think of turning around and seeing the human there, standing, _real._

“Sorry for the delay,” he heard Nigel’s voice. He held his knees against his chest, rocking softly in his place. “Got busy trying to escape from some sons of bitches. But I’m back now,” his hand rested on Adam’s shoulder. He froze, “Like I promised.”

“You left,” Adam muttered. He frowned at the sound of his voice. Nigel walked to face him, crouching so they were face to face. “You left for seven days,” he clutched his knees harder against his chest. “I thought – I thought you were never coming back.”

Nigel smiled at him; a smile that seemed warmer than the light of the Blue Star on Adam’s skin. “Oh, gorgeous,” his hand cupped his cheek, wiping away the wetness in them. “Don’t cry. I’m here now.”

“Cry?” Adam asked, looking at Nigel’s hand. He raised his own hand to wipe his other cheek, looking at the wetness in his hand. _Crying. Tears._ Could androids _cry?_ “I remember what crying is.”

Nigel’s other hand cupped his other cheek, and he leaned in, pressing their foreheads together. “Do you still think you’re an android?” The way he looked at Adam, with such… _warmth,_ made his chest flutter. Adam vaguely wondered if his engines were failing.

“You’re hurt,” he noted. He extended a hand to the human’s cheekbone, a finger collecting some of the red liquid there. He looked at it, mesmerized; it looked like his own fuel. In fact, it was identical. “Blood,” he remembered.

“Do you bleed, too?” Adam nodded. “Then you’re human.”

Adam considered the thought once more. Hearing it from Nigel’s mouth was somehow different than saying it to himself; it felt more real. Nigel was a human; he must have known the difference.

“If I’m human,” he blinked, “Then why am I here? I’ve outlived a whole civilization. I’ve seen generations being born and dying. I saw them arrive, and I saw them go extinct.”

Nigel chuckled. His hands left Adam’s face to retrieve his silver rectangle, and Adam immediately missed the warmth of them. He must have whimpered, because Nigel smiled at him.

“We didn’t really know how to call them, so we just called them Elves,” he shrugged. “Didn’t know the pretentious fuckers called themselves ‘Icekin’,” he snorted. “They live very short lives, mostly due to the environment we believe they developed in. This planetoid only made that worse. They probably lived their whole fucking lives in three days, so you must have felt your perception of time being fucked up,” he chuckled. “Fucking crazy shit.”

“Who is ‘we’?”

Nigel’s constant smile suddenly faded away. Adam wished he hadn’t asked.

He sighed, sitting completely on the snow. “You asked why you’re here,” he remembered. Adam nodded. “You know, it’s a fucked up story; it ain’t so nice. You sure you wanna hear it?”

“I want to know why I’m here,” Adam replied, nodding eagerly. “And I want to know why you’re here, too.”

“Oh, that’s an easy one,” Nigel’s smile returned briefly. “I came here ‘cause some fuckers thought we’d find life here,” he shrugged. “I only found you, but that’s more than enough for me.”

“You said ‘we’ again.”

“Yeah,” he scratched his neck, his smile gone again, replaced instead by a grimace. “Shouldn’t say that. I meant my crew, but they’re all gone.”

“Where did they go to?”

“I don’t know. Heaven?” he laughed, but it faded away to a sad sigh. Adam understood they had died. “I’m surprised you don’t remember, seriously. But then again, I don’t know what the fuck did they do to the ones they chose to save.”

Adam didn’t understand anything the _other_ human was talking about. He cocked his head, trying to analyse his words, but he got nothing. “Save?” He finally asked.

“I’m telling you, it’s a fucking awful story. Why don’t you tell me instead about what you do here?” he laid down, his hands pillowing his head. He looked at Adam, and got a hand out from under his head to pat at the snow next to him. Adam crawled next to him, laying down too, crossing his arms over his chest so he wouldn’t get so cold. He looked at Nigel’s chest, and remembered he had left his _jacket_ behind. Adam vaguely wondered where it was now.

“I stargaze,” he murmured, his eyes still fixed on Nigel’s chest. The shirt with the nice wolves was nice to look at. “By day, I usually write.”

“What do you write on?”

“There are remnants of wood around,” he told him, “from where there used to be trees. I haven’t walked too far away from where I usually stay, although I know the planetoid is small, so I don’t really know if there’s trees somewhere else.”

“You carve words on wood?”

“I prefer to peel the hardest part of the skin first. The inside is a bit softer, and it’s easier to carve words there.”

“What do you use to carve the words?”

“A tooth.”

Nigel chuckled in disbelief. “Yours?”

“No; from an Ice Wolf,” Adam replied, smiling. The motion made his cheeks hurt. “I found it some time after I arrived, before the Icekin came. It has remained sharp throughout time.”

“And what do you write about?”

“Stars, mostly,” he smiled wider. When he caught himself doing so, he frowned. Why was he smiling about talking to a stranger about stars? He looked at Nigel’s face, expecting to find the answer there. His toothy grin told him little; his maroon eyes made him smile even wider. He wasn’t a stranger, he realized; he was _Nigel._ “Black holes, too. Galaxies, and nebulae, and supernovae,” he giggled. “But mostly about stars. Stellar evolution is beautiful.”

Nigel clicked his tongue. “You learned that on Earth, I’m guessing.”

“Earth,” he repeated.

“Right. You don’t remember. I mean, uh, from other humans?”

“Oh,” Adam nodded. “Yes, from other humans. Icekin knew a lot about space, too, but they used different names. I tried to convince one of them once that the constellation over there,” he pointed at the sky, “Is called Cassiopeia. But they’re not flexible about their ideas. Were.”

“What did they call it?”

“The triangles,” Adam laughed. “And they called black holes ‘light suckers’,” this time, Nigel laughed too. Adam felt the snow wasn’t as cold when Nigel laughed.

“Tell me more.”

And so, Adam told him everything he knew about the stars, and black holes, and galaxies. He didn’t shut up for hours and hours, and Nigel’s attentive look never failed to make him smile. He vaguely remembered not liking other humans because they always told him to shut up, or they just didn’t seem interested when he talked. But Nigel was different; he looked at him like what he was saying was the most interesting thing in the whole Universe.

A one-sided conversation soon turned into a mutual one as Adam started talking about planets; Nigel seemed to know a lot about them, even more so than Adam. He told Adam about other planets within this system, and the planets in some system far away from them. He told him about a planet with enormous rings, named after the God of an ancient civilization of humans. Adam was marvelled at the new information. 

They talked until the Blue Star was about to rise once more.

“I’d love to stay,” Nigel interrupted him suddenly, ”But I still have some fuckers to take care of,” he stood up with a jump, shaking off the snow from his clothes. Adam stood up slowly. “I’ll come by again, I promise.”

“How long?” he found himself asking, looking at the messy snow around them. He knew he was talking too quietly, but he couldn’t bring himself to raise his voice.

“Sorry what?”

“You’ll be gone now again,” Adam said, still not glancing up, “For how long?”

He heard a soft exhalation, and a hand was suddenly cupping his cheek again, tilting his head up, forcing him to meet Nigel’s gaze. “Why? Will you miss me?”

Adam didn’t remember having ever used that expression, not even around other humans, but he knew what it meant. He nodded slowly. “Yes. I will miss you, Nigel.”

Nigel smiled softly at him, stepping closer to press their foreheads together again. “I will miss you too, little spaceman,” his thumb caressed Adam’s cheek slowly. “I promise to come back as soon as I can.”

“What will you be doing?”

“Told you I have to take care of some fuckers,” he chuckled. “It’s no big deal, so I’ll probably be back sooner than last time. Alright?”

Adam pursed his lips, unsure. “You promise you’ll be back soon?”

“I promise I’ll try my best to finish everything up quick,” he laughed softly. “See you soon, Adam.”

This time, he pressed his lips to Adam’s. When he walked away, Adam was unable to move, shocked. He saw him mount his dragon, and leave. He raised a hand to touch his lips, where Nigel’s just had been.

When he was finally able to move again, he went looking for Nigel’s jacket. He found it next to where he had left his telescope, buried under piles of snow. He cleaned it as best he could, and he tried it on. It was enormous on his body, but it still smelled of Nigel, and it was warm, like him. He slept with it, and he didn’t take it off again.

Seven days passed again, and Nigel was nowhere to be seen. Adam didn’t even have the strength to stargaze; he felt a gaping hole right at the centre of his chest, eating him away. He constantly cried; the emptiness he felt reducing him to a little crying ball. He didn’t know why, but he felt bad. The emptiness and the loneliness felt as though oxygen was being slowly taken away from him, leaving him unable to breathe.

Fourteen days later, things weren’t much better. He wished he hadn’t looked up; he wished Nigel hadn’t saved him from that strange black thing that night. He wished he would have never known company, because now the loneliness was unbearable. 

He couldn’t hear the gentle blowing of the wind anymore, nor could he feel snowflakes covering his body. Stars didn’t seem as bright, and the sky looked darker than ever. The light of that awful Blue Star seemed colder than ever.

He wished, in that moment, he could stop existing. He wish he could fade away, like the Icekin, leaving almost no trace behind. He wished he could forget he had ever met Nigel. But, mostly, he just wished Nigel was okay.

When a hand rested over his shoulder, the night of the fourteenth day, he almost jumped out of his skin.

“The fuck are you doing buried under the snow? You’re gonna get sick, if you’re not already,” he heard the familiar voice, slightly rougher. Maybe Nigel was sick.

_Nigel._

Adam straightened up immediately, standing up with the little strength he had left just to see if he was really back. “Nigel!” he screamed when his blue eyes met maroon ones, his gaze immediately deflecting to the wounds the man bore. “Your nice wolf shirt is all torn apart,” he said sadly, holding the torn fabric between his fingers. “You’re all torn apart, too. What happened?”

Nigel laughed, his hand messing Adam’s curls. His laughter turned into rough coughs, and he suddenly fell into the snow.

“Are you okay?” Adam sat in front of him, a hand tentatively going to touch at one of the man’s wounds. He felt his throat tighten, a feeling similar to the one he had been feeling just minutes ago, when he feared for Nigel’s safety. “What happened, Nigel?”

“Motherfuckers were tougher than I though,” he tried to chuckle, but a wince of pain stopped him. He coughed again, trying to straighten up. “Guess I can’t keep myself away from trouble, even outside goddamn Earth,” he pushed himself upwards with his arm, but it gave up under him.

“Don’t move too much,” Adam said, standing up and ducking to grab Nigel’s ankles. He dragged him slowly to where he kept his telescope and his other few belongings, taking his jacket away to cover Nigel with it. “I can help you heal your wounds, but it’s going to hurt, and I’ll have to touch you.”

Nigel seemed to be half asleep. He smiled, worriless. “Go ahead, gorgeous.”

Adam nodded to himself, gulping before walking away to look for something. He knew it had to be somewhere close; he hadn’t used any of it for a long time. He looked around desperately, throwing snowballs at Ice Wolves when they got too close to him, until he found what he was looking for. He returned to Nigel’s side, sitting next to him to remove his jacket and fix his wounds.

Nigel opened his eyes slightly, just enough to look at what Adam held in his hands. “So the rumours were true,” he muttered, looking at the weird-looking sponge Adam was now pressing to his wounded forehead.

“I found these by accident,” Adam told him, wiping the blood away slowly, trying not to hurt him too much. The wound closed as soon as Adam passed the odd material over it. “There were lots of these when I first arrived, but the Icekin ate almost all of them. I sometimes eat them too, but I don’t need much to feel full. They’re the closest thing I’ve seen here to plants, besides the remains of possible trees. I’m going to remove your shirt now,” Nigel nodded softly.

The left arm went out first, then Adam struggled to pull the fabric from under Nigel’s torso. When he finally managed to do so, he pulled it off his right arm. There, he had a mark. Adam blinked at the sight. He extended a hand to touch it, but didn’t quite dare to do so.

“Your right arm,” he muttered softly.

Nigel grunted as response. “Soul mark,” he said in a strangled whisper.

“I have it, too,” Adam rolled his sleeve up as much as he could, and extended his right arm so Nigel could see he had the same mark over his right arm. “Canis major. The icekin told me that was probably where I was made. They said it was my making mark; the proof I was created by another civilization who put the mark there.”

Nigel laughed softly. “Why didn’t I fucking guess,” was all he said in response. He tried to raise a hand to touch Adam’s mark, but the pain stopped him. Adam remembered he was supposed to be healing him.

“Do all humans have it?” he asked while healing the wounds in Nigel’s chest and ribs. “Is that where we come from?”

As soon as the wounds in his ribs were closed, Nigel took a deep breath in. “Fucking cunts; I thought I’d die from the beating I took,” he straightened up, taking the material away from Adam’s hands, carefully passing it over the rest of his numerous wounds. “No, not all humans have this mark,” he answered, distracted. “You know how I mentioned something about a soul mark when we first met? Told you you had to have one, too. All humans have one, but they’re not the same.”

“Why do we have them?”

“I thought they were a fucking mistake,” he said, looking at the material in his hands after he was finished healing himself up. He rested his back against the pile of wood Adam had next to his telescope, patting next to him so Adam would sit by his side. Adam complied. “You know, I hated fuckers like you, back when we had to leave the hellhole that Earth had turned into.”

“Hate?” Adam must have said it in a sad tone; Nigel wrapped an arm around his waist, chuckling.

“I said I used to,” he laughed. “Well, I kinda still did, I guess. I never understood what made you guys so special, until now.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I think I know why you don’t remember. They sedated you all before sending you off, but there were a couple of you they had to sedate beforetime, ‘cause they were fucking neurotic,” he snorted. “You got neurotic about it, probably. Who wouldn’t, after all,” he shrugged. “We had to leave Earth; that’s what happened to humans, and what happened to the ‘we’ you’ve been asking about.”

“Why did we have to leave?”

“Well, not all of us left. Actually, almost no one did. I got lucky,” he rolled his eyes. “Well, _okay,_ I stole a fucking ship, but it was my right, you know? All these privileged fuckers were getting sent away, and everyone was saying it was because they were the ones meant to survive; they were the ones we could trust to rebuild our world, somewhere else. The smartasses.”

Adam nodded slowly. He crawled closer to Nigel, his side pressed to him. “I was one of those, wasn’t I?”

“See? They were right; you were the cleverest motherfuckers Earth had,” he laughed. “I didn’t fucking believe it, so I just stole a shitty ship and got me and my friend out of that hell. I don’t even know how we managed to pilot that fucking thing, but we did. It became our home. 

“We went to so many places, we tried to find life somewhere else. And we did, but they were all too fucking dumb. Not evolved enough, whatever. Then we heard about two other races, you know, civilized and shit. We found the first one in a planet orbiting a red dwarf. We tried to communicate, but all the motherfuckers cared about was killing us. They were a tiny civilization anyway, so we just went away to look after the second one. By the time we arrived, their planet had turned into a pile of shit too. Then the guys from the red dwarf managed to find us, and killed half of us. We killed half of ‘em too, ‘cause they were like a hundred, and we were like twenty.

“By then, only Darko and I remained. So we tried to find the rest of those fuckers and take our revenge; we had nothing left to lose, nothing to live for, after all. But they had gotten themselves better ammo. How the fuck did they get that, I still don’t know. I managed to steal some of it, though, while we were taking ‘em down. Darko got killed, and I almost did, too. Our ship exploded with Darko in it. I was supposed to be there with him, helping him fight those fuckers, but instead I was trying to get my hands on that fucker,” he pointed at his dragon, standing loyally some meters away from them, not moving at all. “By the time I managed to tame him and go back to our ship, all I saw was space junk.

“So I tried not to think about it too much, tried to go on with the plan and find somewhere to live, or some other forms of life. I got a trace from this beauty,” he pointed at his waist, where Adam knew the silver rectangle was. “It pointed at this planetoid, claimed the Elves had moved here. But when I arrived…”

“You just found me,” Adam completed.

“Yeah,” Nigel smiled. “I knew the red-dwarf-fuckers were close, though, and I knew they’d want to get their hands on this planetoid. So I had to kill the rest of them.”

“That’s why you went away.”

Nigel nodded. “Yeah, but the fuckers were tough, even more so without Darko to help me take them down. I thought I had killed them all, so I came back with you, but the fuckers weren’t done. Two of them; just two of them remained. And the sons of bitches got their weird little eyes on you,” Adam saw his jaw tense, his free hand forming a fist that left his knuckles white. “Those were the hardest motherfuckers I’ve ever taken down, so that’s why it took me so long,” the hand that rested on Adam’s waist raised up to ruffle his hair, resting then on his shoulder. “They’re all gone now, though, so we’re free.”

Adam nodded. “What happened to the other humans? The ones that got sent away, like me.”

“They all died, except for you. I have no fucking idea how you ended up here in the first place,” Nigel shrugged. “The others didn’t manage to do shit, and starved off in some nice, big planet. I think the last one died about a day ago.”

“Why didn’t you try to save them?” he looked up at Nigel. “You could have brought them here.”

“I couldn’t give two shits about those fuckers,” he said. “I told you I hated them.”

“Then why are you here?” his voice sounded hurt, and he tried to pull himself away from Nigel’s embrace. The man didn’t let him, though; he wrapped both his arms around Adam, lifting him to sit him between his legs, Adam’s back pressed against Nigel’s chest. “Why?” he asked again, squirming in Nigel’s tight embrace. “Why?”

“Don’t cry, gorgeous,” Nigel whispered against his hair, nuzzling it. “I couldn’t bring myself to hate you. The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I could never hate you like that. I knew I could never leave your side,” he sighed. Adam stopped struggling, tears still running down his cheeks. He sobbed softly, unable to stop himself. “I should have guessed.”

“Guessed what?” he asked, voice broken. He closed his eyes shut, wrapping his own arms around Nigel’s as best he could, trying to memorize the feeling of his warm body pressed against his own.

“The soul mark,” he began, ”I thought it was some stupid shit. I looked everywhere, even before Earth became hell, and I never found anyone with the same mark. As the legend goes,” he chuckled softly, tone mocking, “Your soulmate has the same mark as you. Nothing really happens when you meet them. To the mark, I mean. It stays there, but it’s supposed to shine or some shit when your soulmate touches it. Just once, just the first time.”

Adam unwrapped his arms from Nigel’s, struggling to get his right arm free. He rolled his sleeve up until his mark was visible. “Do it, then.”

He felt Nigel smile against his skull. His left arm left Adam’s hips, raising to place two fingers just under it. Adam felt a shiver running down his spine. “I thought it was all bullshit. I thought maybe I was just an unlucky motherfucker meant to die alone,” he traced his fingers up and down, caressing softly, not quite touching the mark. “I thought that, even if I did find my soulmate, it wouldn’t be as fucking magical as everyone put it,” his fingers went up and up Adam’s arm, just an inch away from it. He caressed the mark softly, lighting it up, as though the actual constellation was in Adam’s arm in that moment. “I was so wrong. I got the best deal out there, even if I had to kill an entire race to ensure your safety.”

Adam smiled softly. “Can I touch yours?”

“Go ahead,” Nigel smiled back, letting Adam go so he could turn around and reach for his right arm. His mark lighted up, just like Adam’s.

“It’s beautiful,” he murmured, enamoured. “It’s even better than the actual constellation.”

“Isn’t it?”

Adam leaned in this time, pressing his lips against Nigel’s. _A kiss,_ he remembered. The warmest of them all.

“What are we going to do now?” he asked, pulling away just enough to speak.

“I like it here,” Nigel replied, rubbing his nose affectionately against Adam’s. “We can get some wood, maybe some other materials. I can show you around,” he promised. “We’ll build a warm home here, and this will be our place in the Universe.”

“I like it here, too,” Adam replied, grinning. “I like it more when you’re around,” he admitted, looking into the maroon eyes, seeing his own reflection, and the same emotion he felt, looking back at him with such warmth. “I like the cold, and I like the quietness, but it’s better when you’re here. It’s warmer, and it’s nicer.”

“My little android,” he laughed quietly. “We’ll always be warm here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Needless to say, this isn't scientifically accurate; it's quite unlikely an O-type star could hold life in any of its orbiting planets (and even so, it wouldn't last), and I use the word _planetoid_ instead of dwarf planet, just because I like it more. But hey, it's sci-fi AND fantasy. ;)
> 
> Also, I based Skaldi's orbit and rotation on Pluto's. So a year there lasts about 248 Earth years (so Adam had been there for less than 30 years; I imagine, half of that), and a day lasts 6.39 Earth days - So the first time, Nigel was away for more than a month. Second time, he was away for almost three months.  
> Last thing! The planetoid's name comes from the goddess **Skaði** , who was responsible for the serpent that dripped venom onto Loki. I modified the name a bit, of course.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! You can find me on [Tumblr!](http://headfullofaliens.tumblr.com/)


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